The Breeding Prize - Aya Morningstar Page 0,51

mile away when we first spotted them, they are nearly on top of us already.

The Koira themselves are small. Too small to see clearly even from this distance. Their little legs do not hang down off the horses like my legs—or even a human man's legs would—they are stubby little things, and unless I look very closely, I almost imagine the mechanical horses are cyborg centaurs. Machine horses with organic torsos jutting out of them.

The horses stop abruptly. Panic hits me from the higher dimensions.

Kula and I both turn in the same instant. We turn in the same direction the Koira are now facing.

From the sparse treeline we see it. Philos is coming toward us. He's larger than the trees already. With each step he takes, he grows larger and larger still. He begins running in a full-on sprint. He must be over fifty feet tall already, and as the length of his legs grow with each step he takes, he clears more and more distance with each stride.

Kula and I turn our weapons toward him.

I look over my shoulder at Annabelle. "Stay behind me, Muru!"

Still on horseback, the Koira fan out. There are only five of them right now. I see more dust clouds in the distance—more Koira on more horses—but they are too far away. Philos is going to be on top of us in mere moments, and the Koira—fast as they are—are at least two minutes away still.

Kula and I stand shoulder-to-shoulder and brace ourselves.

Philos has stopped growing, but he's the size of a small skyscraper on one of Earth's cities. Every time one of his feet crashes into the plain, there's a rumbling I feel deep in my bones. The ground cracks beneath his feet, and clouds of dust race toward us as he pulverizes the ground beneath his massive feet. Each of his feet looks to be the size of a bus.

"What do we do?" Kula asks.

There's fear in his voice. As long as I've known my brother, the only time I ever heard such fear in his voice was when I cut the bond out of him. Ever since, he's been utterly fearless, but with Philos rushing toward us like a force of nature, I too understand his fear.

I don't fear for my life. I fear for my Muru. If Kula and I can't stop him, she'll be his to take. I'll have lost her, and I'll have failed in my promise to protect her above all else.

I grip my scythe and hold it forward. Six-dimensional weapons cut deeper than anything in the galaxy, and it shouldn't matter how large he is.

"Go for his ankles, brother," I order.

Kula nods, and the two of us charge straight into him.

It's like no battle I've ever fought. As I get nearly in range to take a swing at him, his foot lifts up to take another step. I have to run backward to try to catch his ankle as it comes back down to the ground. He adjusts his stride, and suddenly I'm in a deep shadow. His foot is blotting out the sun, and it's coming down straight for me.

I run as fast as I can toward the line of the shadow. I leap just as I feel the air rush above me from the massive foot crashing down. I fling my scythe backward as I jump, and it slices into his heel. Purple blood spurts out and covers me like a fountain. Philos roars, and he tries to dig his heel down onto me again.

I roll away and slash once again. More blood. I'm soaked in this fucker's blood. My hair is clinging to my face, and my kilt is soaked through. I can smell him on me.

I brace for another stomp, but he just rushes away from me instead. He fears my scythe.

He's limping slightly as he runs now, but it's only slowed him down marginally. Kula, over 100 feet away from me, is covered in blood as well. We've cut into both of the golden-skinned alien's feet, but it doesn't matter. He keeps going.

We try to catch up to him, but he's faster. He doesn't even stop to take her, he just hunches over slightly and scoops her up into his hand, which is the size of a large car. He cups her in both hands, and I run after him.

I realize in shocked horror that I cannot keep up with him. He runs with an awkward limp, but his size is too